There are literally thousands of containers you can select to show your personality, fit your design scheme or to make a statement.  There are then thousands of choices of plant material and combinations of plants you can plant to really personalize your container gardens. Selecting the container does require a little more thought than just appreciating the look or design of the container to increase your odds of container gardening success.  The larger and deeper the container, the easier it is to manage the watering, especially as we get into the much drier, summer season. There should be a drainage hole so water does not stand in the root zone.

 Smaller container or hanging baskets up in the air and exposed to more drying winds will need to be watered more often while larger containers will be slower to dry out and require less human attention.  Select a good well drained soil mix to add to your container rather than just filling with topsoil or loam that is often too tight and heavy for container gardening and will not breath and dry out like a good soil mix with sphagnum peat, composted pine bark and other soil amendments.  Any commercial soil mix should be PH corrected to 5.5 to 6.5.  You can add polymers to help keep the mix from drying out so quickly or mycorrhizae to stimulate and colonize natural biological activity in the soil.  Container Gardens, like your garden beds, will benefit from a couple inch layer of bark or hulls mulched over the top of the ground to reduce watering, weeds and to maintain a steady soil temperature.

 Avid gardeners may have up to dozens of container gardens, and love them because they are easier to work since they are literally “planting holes” raised up out of the ground.  They can be moved from front porches to back patios or wherever you want to make an impact when hosting parties or guests.  You can move them by the season or for a single night event. Many folks have adopted the European idea of even setting container gardens in flower beds amongst other plantings to create focal points and to add more heights to the landscape as well as the “sculpture” type impact of the container itself.

 The possibilities are endless so visit your local nursery or garden center and select some preplanted decorative container gardens or hanging baskets.  It can be even more fun to select your own plants to show your container gardening flair planted in the containers you already have or in the new containers that capture your imagination.

 Mother’s Day and flowers have always seemed like a perfect match.  Many of us have special memories of working in the yard or vegetable garden with our mother or grandmother.  We often know their favorite flower or plant, remember them growing a special houseplant in their kitchen window, cutting fresh iris or roses to bring in the house or harvesting tomatoes and peppers and turning them into culinary delights.  This next weekend is a special time to share with our mothers and grandmothers if we are fortunate enough to still have them with us or to remember them if they have already passed on.  Invite mom over for lunch or dinner  and give her a bouquet, a plant she has been wanting or that special decorative container or garden tool she has been hinting about.  You can give her a gardening book, a membership in the Oklahoma Horticulture Society, a gift certificate to her favorite garden center or a coupon offering to work a few hours or a weekend with her in her yard.

 If your mother is still alive, I hope you will be able to spend some time with her in person or on the phone this weekend and get to share some of the love and memories that make your relationship special.  If your mother has already passed, this is still a good time to remember her and maybe plant a tree, peony, rose bush or other plant in your yard to help keep her memory alive at your home.  I am blessed to have a very special mother, Marjorie Moesel, that helped expose me to the joys of plants and gardening very early in life. I deeply appreciate and treasure her loving support and encouragement of everything we’ve ever tackled in school, church, family and business.  Thanks Mom for everything and Happy Mothers Day.

 No two years are ever alike and every year in the garden or on the farm when you are dealing with nature is a new chapter and a new experience.  Wine connoisseurs know that, as they debate whether the 1992 or the 2005 or some other vintage is the best. The same is true for roses, tomatoes, petunias and crepe myrtles.  Since each plant has different optimum conditions, okra, impatiens or any other crop is likely to have their best year at different times.  Some of the success factors we can control by amending and improving our soils, fertilizing, helping fend off insects and diseases and most importantly by supplemental watering and selecting the right new locations for the plants we want to grow.  Some factors are totally out of our hands like daytime temperatures, nighttime temperatures, wind, humidity levels, sunlight intensity and cloud cover and the type, size and regularity of rain events.  Every year is different  and a new experience.  That is part of both the fun and the challenge of gardening.  It looks like this year is off to a fabulous start and has a chance to be a “vintage” year for Oklahoma gardeners. Like farmers, gardeners have to be optimists to start fresh each year and plunge ahead into the great unknown of the new growing season without knowing what weather and challenges lie ahead.  When it works, few other things produce such great returns to feed the stomach with food and the soul  with beauty and a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

 We are only one week into the normal spring planting season so this is prime planting season for virtually all growing crops.  This is the time to plant your patio pots, hanging baskets and other decorative containers.  It is the time to plant bermuda grass seed, plant fruit trees to start an orchard, grapes for a vineyard or berries for a berry patch.  Plant herbs to start an herb or kitchen garden, trees for shade, shrubs to add character and landscape your yard.  This is the optimum time to plant perennials for seasonal color, annuals for regular color from now until the first freeze next winter. Few things are as satisfying as growing your own tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and other summer vegetables and now is the time to plant all those fresh food crops for summer harvesting.

 Visit your local nursery or garden center, soak in the beauty and select some slices of nature you want to add to your yard.  Then sow the seeds, plant the plants, water them and get ready to partner with nature and enjoy the 2012 ride of the seasons with your plants.

 Now even the most conservative and cautious Oklahoma gardeners should historically be safe to plant our tomatoes, peppers, petunias, begonias and impatiens.  There are a few real hot weather crops that normally would do best if you wait to plant them until May 1 or after like caladiums, sweet potatoes and many tropical plants.  But this year, who knows, you may be OK even if you planted those weeks ago. 

 This is the challenge and joy that faces all farmers and gardeners.  We get to deal with lots of factors beyond our control.  We try to make wise decisions and then hope and pray for the best while trying to assist Mother Nature with a little watering, trimming, weeding and mulching to improve our crop results.

 Now that it is planting time, the quicker you plant means more growing season your plants can take advantage of, more spring rains they can enjoy and put to use, more cool spring weather they can enjoy and grow with before the challenges of summer heat.  Besides planting, this is a good time to feed your trees, shrubs, lawn and other plants if you have not already fed your plants this season.  You will want to mulch your flower beds with some type of bark or hulls before the summer heat and the sooner you do that after planting means less weeding and less extra watering.

Besides planting your vegetable garden to produce fresh food for your tummy and flower gardens to feed your soul, don’t forget to plant up and enjoy container gardens and hanging baskets.  Container gardens can really liven up your porch, patio and outdoor living areas to bring color and excitement to the areas where you spend much of your outdoor time.

We apologize for holding you back and wasting a full month of perfectly good growing season the way 2012 has developed.  We hope you will join us in getting outside and enjoying the great outdoors in your own yard.  You can beautify your property and enjoy producing your own food while soaking up some renewing sunshine and fresh Oklahoma air.  It doesn’t get much better than springtime in Oklahoma.

It is getting late to apply pre-emergent weed killers or weed and feed products so if you haven’t already applied those, please do so at once.  We are also late for planting onion plants, seed potatoes, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli and other cool season vegetables, If you are determined to grow a spring crop of any of those cool season vegetables that must be planted at once if you want to get a harvest before the heat of summer wears them out.

 This is a good time to sow seeds of tall turf fescue or other lawn grass seeds in shady areas.  Visit your local garden center to select Crossfire III or another fescue variety well suited to your yard and soil type.  Make sure not to sow new lawn grass seed to an area where you have applied pre-emergent weed killers in the last 2 months.  That pre-emergent may also kill your grass seed and prevent its germination.

 This is a fun time of year in the yard and as I drive around Oklahoma to enjoy all the beautiful flowering shrubs and trees decked out in their best flowers.  The flowering shrubs started with bright yellow forsythia, then orange and red quince, and now the sweet smell and color of lilacs.  The flowering trees started with Bradford ornamental pears, moved on to peaches and apricots.  Now the redbud and crabapples are in full color and are truly spectacular.  At this time of year it is easy to see why our forefathers made the redbud our state tree.  After a long cold winter these native trees in our landscape announce spring with brilliant displays of pink, lavender or reddish flowers cloaking the stems before they ever put on a leaf.  Redbuds are the Oklahoma version of what cherry trees are to Washington, D.C.. Ours are just spread out more instead of concentrated  in one spot like those in D.C..  It is getting late to plant bareroot trees, shrubs or berries but it is one of the best times to plant container grown or balled and burlapped trees. This is a great time to visit your local nursery or garden center and to select the flowering shrubs and trees, fruit trees or ornamental trees and shrubs to add to your landscape.

 We have been blessed with some nice spring rains and mild temperatures that make it a great time to get out in the yard and garden.  I hope you will make time to enjoy the greatest show on earth as Mother Nature gradually brings the plant world back to life, one plant at a time, for another great growing season.